With the prime motive of dependable and authentic mobility in smaller cities, Ola has launched its E-rickshaw platform currently in service in Delhi and NCR regions. Prime Minister, Narendra Modi did the honors of launching the Ola e-rickshaw platform by booking the first e-rickshaw. This ride became a part of the ‘Stand-up India’ initiative by Narendra Modi, which is aimed at promoting entrepreneurship. Narendra Modi is one of the most techs savvy leaders, he is well known for exercising the power of social media to reach out to every citizen of our country. The Stand-up India scheme revolves around promoting entrepreneurship among under-privileged sectors, the unenlightened and indigent citizens of the country.
The official statement stated by the company suggests that the launch event involved distribution of 5,100 Ola e-rickshaws in partnership with Bhartiya Micro Credit (BMC). These e-rickshaws are to be positioned across Delhi, Gurgaon, Ghaziabad, Noida and Faridabad. They will further roll over to more small towns and Tier III cities in the months to come by.
The idea behind this e-rickshaw initiative is to provide the rickshaw pullers with a platform to threefold their income by reducing their mundanely tedious and fatiguing mode of earning from pedal rickshaw to e-rickshaw, which along with being eco-friendly will reduce their labor massively! Ola has come up with this innovative game-plan to cover the last mile connectivity for the users in metropolitan and the transportation needs of users in small cities effectively.
“It’s an honour to support ‘Stand-up India’ initiative with innovative micro-entrepreneurship solutions and technology platform. Economic growth, rapid urbanisation and environmental concerns are driving the need for innovative mobility solutions across the country.”
Pranav Jivrajka, COO, Ola
E-rickshaw is convenient, faster and affordable for both the drivers as well as the customers. Ola and BMC will work hand-in-hand to provide the existing rickshaw drivers with skill development centres. This will encourage, train and increase the overall skills of the e-rickshaw drivers. Battery operated rickshaws offer a magical solution to intense air pollution severely infesting our country. The e-rickshaw can charge batteries by solar energy. Thus, the energy is generated by a renewable, eco-friendly natural source.
Ola’s e-rickshaw initiative is also serving a small step towards promoting women entrepreneurs. 150 among the 5100 e-rickshaws were given to women, to ensure financial independence along with a way to help and nurture their families. Also, FreeCharge digital payments company is on board with this initiative as a partner. It will enable the customers to connect and pay the e-rickshaw drivers via the chat-n-pay service. This will eliminate the fuss over arranging change and it will be convenient to pay on-the-go in a secure transaction for both customers as well as drivers.
With government taking huge leaps in promoting the startup ecosystem and attempting at helping it foster. The big question is: will this be a success? Well, the major criteria for this initiative to succeed, is that Ola along with the government has to perform a quality background check of every to-be driver-entrepreneur of the e-rickshaw, thus eradicating any room for any sort of mishaps. Also implementation of a safety service would add up to this excellent e-rickshaw initiative’s success.
Image Source: Olacabs
